Lane builds to big win over Lincoln ParkIndians take 1st league game over depleted Lady Lions

By Patrick Z. McGavin

CHICAGO -- Part of the ineluctable beauty of soccer is that youth and skill are often privileged over experience and size. The game is certainly physical, but the best players have a natural, even intuitive way, of upending or working around natural obstacles.

Grace Dunaway is a curious player. She fits the mold by breaking it.

“I am not the biggest, strongest or the tallest player, so I try to use quickness and my speed to my advantage,” Dunaway said. A Lane sophomore, she has the positional versatility to play either in the midfield or at the top of the Indians’ attack opposite Lena Price-Johnson.

Her first name is also telling and in her case an accurate account of her style, a state of being, or certainly purpose.

Dunaway was a lyrical and direct presence she scored two goals as the Indians opened Chicago Public League Premier Division play with a convincing 7-0 victory over a depleted Lincoln Park team at Near North Field late Wednesday afternoon.

Five different players scored for the Indians (3-1-2, 1-0-0), who increased their undefeated and unscored upon streaks to four games. The marquee confrontation turned one-sided as the Indians’ multitude of scorers overwhelmed a Lions’ team missing multiple starters.

Dunaway came off the bench to score her second and third goals of the year to earn Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honors. Lane’s impressive win was varied and complete. Five different players scored. Sophomore Kayla Dutton, a forward with a very powerful leg and accurate touch, scored her first two goals of the season.

Just as impressively, the Indians’ swarming, suffocating backline never allowed Lincoln Park star forward Jordan Roderick-Fried any significant offensive opportunities. Lincoln Park (3-2-0, 0-1-0) played tough and tight through much of the first half, through sheer will if nothing else. The opening goal by Price-Johnson didn’t come until the 32nd minute.

“I think it’s a flukey thing, between the academics and the injuries, ” Lincoln Park coach Geoffrey Ruttenberg said. “Right now, we have eight players missing either with injuries or because of academics. It is unfortunate because the season is two months, so if you miss three of four weeks, you are gone almost half of the season. We have been playing the whole year without about 30 percent of our roster missing.

“As soon as as (absent players) get to a point where they are good to go, we are going to have them back”

Ruttenberg has been forced to alter his lineup. Against Lane, he had to move two of his best players, midfielders Anisa Ciaciura and Kyra Biederman, into the back to try and slow down the Indians’ attack. The necessary move further undermined the team’s offensive capabilities.

“This was a very important game for us, one that we had been looking forward to, against one of the best teams in the city and the first conference game,” Ciaciura said. “I think we played hard, and we did as well as we could. But we got awfully tired in the second half. It is very frustrating knowing we did not have our full potential out there today.”.Lincoln Park had the favorable field conditions in the first half, having the wind and going toward the west goal, the part of the natural grass field surface less cut up and marked by the lack of grass. Lane never allowed the Lions to mount any serious attack.

The Indians knew they had to shut down Roderick-Fried, one of the city’s elite talents who had nine goals in the Lions’ first four games.

“A few of us know, and we knew that she was very fast, probably faster than anybody on our defense,” junior Lane defender Leah Finkielsztein said. “We played pretty deep and tried to cut her off before she could get past us.”

The defensive strategy yielded strong offensive returns, she said. Lane did a terrific job of synchronizing the disparate parts.

“We tried to build our attack out of the back, because we have a lot of good touches,” Finkielsztein said. “We try to play out of the back very calmly and as well as possible.”

The first Lane goal started to open the flood gates.

Also in the 32nd minute, midfielder Alana Coffman ripped a shot for the second goal.

Dunaway remained in charge. She was particularly active and dynamic against the Lady Lions and applied constant pressure in the Lincoln Park end. She made sharp runs off the initial balls played Price-Johnson and Jazzmin Jordan.

Her relentless activity paid dividends as Dunaway extended the lead to 3-0 after blasting a ball from about nine yards late in the first half. Price-Johnson is the senior on a Lane roster dotted with precocious talent like Dunaway. The team has played well together.

“All of us play for the same club team. Having that chemistry from the fall is really helpful when it comes to the spring as well,” Dunaway said.

Lane also impressed by scoring not only in the run of play but often sharply designed set pieces. Jordan drilled a free kick in the 46th minute, and Dutton registered her first goal by bending in a corner kick in the 67th minute. Dunaway also scored her second goal on a beautiful cross from Camaron Niforos.

“We were working a lot on set pieces in practice, and that definitely helped us capitalize in this game,” Dutton said. “A lot of different people got to score, and that’s always a good thing.”

Dutton blasted a rocket ball two minutes after he corner kick goal that handcuffed Lady Lions’ keeper Manel Maatoug. It closed out the scoring and punctuated the Indians’ impressive win. Despite conceding the seven goals, Maatoug played well for the Lady Lions. She had eight saves in the second half and 12 for the game.

Lincoln Park caught the wrong team at exactly the wrong time.

“We always come into every game thinking the same thing,” Dutton said. “We are always looking to come out and make a statement. We do not necessarily look at the name of the team we are playing any differently. We want to show, even though we lost a good amount of seniors last year, we are still the same strong team.”

Lane has won consecutive Premier Division titles. The Lincoln Park game was an excellent start toward the team goal of a third.

“We were very excited to play our first conference game,” Lane coach Michelle Vale said. “We wanted to come out and play hard and see what we were like and calibrate the rest of our season based on what we were like today.”